


I'm PIRATE!!!

by IAmAwesomeMe



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, Light Flirting, Minor Spoilers, Season 3, fire scene, he's trying, pirate scene
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-18 08:20:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21508042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmAwesomeMe/pseuds/IAmAwesomeMe
Summary: Inspired by this post on Tumlr: (https://luztapia.tumblr.com/post/189066463026/im-pirate-those-who-had-seen-episode-8-will)I had a full au just popped into my head and hear I am writing them on.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

Gilbert’s hand shook as he raised the cup up to his lips.

That’s not a good sign, he thought.

Perhaps it had something to do with the coffee that was in the cup, his fourth cup of the day. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he hadn’t had much sleep last night. Or the night before that. Or the night before that one, either. Come to think of it, Gilbert couldn’t remember the last time he had a good sleep.

He pushed those thought out of his head and focused on the book ahead of him. So, from the dorsal metacarpal ligaments there’s the metacarpal, then the proximal, middle and distal phalanges. Gilbert looked at his own hand, making it into a fist then flexing it to flatten it out. He could see all the different parts moving. Cool. Then they started to shake again. Not so cool.

He looked at his pocket watch. It told him that it was 11:23. He could feel himself reaching a point of diminishing return with his studying. He packed up his stuff and left the library.

“See you again tomorrow night,” Gilbert said to the librarian as he left.

“And every night after that,” the librarian returned. She and Gilbert had developed a steady rapport after Gilbert started spending every night in the library once med school started to kick into high gear.

He left the library and went down his usual path to go home. He cut across campus, then took a left and walked along the waterfront. It was dark out, and the full moon shone on the water. The salty air filled his lungs, and the steady beat of the shore against the pier soothed his mind. He had read something about how certain sounds can lull the brain into a state of relaxation and help you go to sleep. The ocean must be one of them, because he could already feel the exhaustion taking over his body. He closed his eyes. He couldn’t wait till he was back in his room and able to collapse in his bed.

Suddenly, he felt something heavy hit the back of his head. He dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

He couldn’t remember much of the next few hours since he was knocked out. When he woke up, tied to a wooden chair. He could feel the floor moving under him. I guess I’m on a ship, he concluded.

He tried to get a better look around. It was a all-wooden room, kind of small too. It was lit by an oil lamp hanging above the bed. He also saw a huge lock on the door, one that was only able to lock from the outside, but the door was open and a boy was leaning against the door frame. There was a bed against one side and a desk against the another. There was a beautiful girl with bright red hair sitting on the desk, picking at her nails with a knife. She had a pair of black pants on, with a loose fitting white shirt and a teal vest over that. A sash hung around her waist, and a tri-cornered black hat hung on her head. Her hair hung loose, cascading down over her shoulders, and Gilbert was mesmerized by it’s beautiful colour. In fact, he was enchanted by everything about her. “Woah,” he couldn’t help but say.

That got her attention, and she looked up. Her eyes were piercing, and his heart skipped a beat. It also got the attention of her friend. He straightened his back and came in the room and for the first time Gilbert could see just how tall he was. He crossed his arms, flexing his muscles in the process.

“Down, boy,” the red head said. He stepped back, leaned against the door frame, but kept his eyes on Gilbert. “He knows he can’t get out of those ropes.”

Gilbert looked down. His hands were tied on either side of the chair, and his legs were also tied apart from each other. He struggled a bit but gave up.

“Now,” the red head continued. “You must have a lot of questions. Since I am generous, I will allow you three and I swear to answer them all truthfully. Pick them carefully, because this is the only chance you will get.”

Gilbert thought for a moment. “What’s your name?” He asked.

“They call me the pirate queen,” she said. “The papers have also called me the Flame-headed Sea Captain, the red headed ruffians, or the titanic terror. I personally like the last one best, but you can also call me Cordelia, if you that suits you best. Next question.”

“Where are we?” He asked.

“On a ship,” Cordelia answered, then smirked. “That was a pretty stupid question. I thought you were smarter than that.” She had a teasing glint in her eyes.

Gilbert cursed himself. “Can I get that question back, then?”

“Nope, and that is three.” She put her knife in her belt sash, then got up to leave.

“One more, if you will allow me,” Gilbert pleaded. She stopped, giving him permission. He realised she was right, he had so many questions. But only one kept coming back. “What’s going to happen to me?”

“Nothing,” she answered, and he breathed a sigh of relief. “At least, nothing tonight.” She winked at him, then left.

As she left, her beefy friend walked up to Gilbert. “What does she mean by that, nothing tonight?” He asked but he didn’t answer. Instead, he drew a knife. Gilbert got nervous as he leaned down, but then he just cut the rope tying Gilbert’s right leg and Gilbert sighed in relief. He then freed his left leg, then held Gilbert down by the shoulder so he couldn’t escape as he worked to free his arms. He then pull Gilbert by the arm and tossed him on the bed.

“Sleep,” he instructed, with a heavy French accent. “You’ll need it tomorrow.” He got the lantern from the desk then left the room, and Gilbert could hear the lock turn as he secured it.

Gilbert was alone, and in the dark. He didn’t know what to do. He could now see a few small beams of moonlight on the far wall. Above his head, Gilbert found a small, circular window that had been boarded over, perhaps to stop him from escaping, but through the crack between the boards Gilbert could see the sea. He couldn’t see much else, but that was enough. For some reason, the sight calmed him. He settled back onto the bed where he found a pillow and blanket set. He set them up and took off his shirt and jacket and pants till he was just in his underwear and tank top, then got into bed but he couldn’t sleep. He stared up at the ceiling, thinking about Cordelia. The way her hair shone by the light of the lantern, the way her eyes seemed to pierce into his soul, the way she made him feel both safe and kept him on his toes.

He had heard about her before, in the newspaper. Some reports about her kidnapping people and holding them for ransom. What that what she was going to do with him? He knew he should be worried, but he honestly wondered how much he would be worth. He was training to be a doctor, so that was in his favour, but he didn’t have any family so who would pay it? He supposed that his fiance’s family, the Roses, could pay for it, or the doctor that he is apprenticing for, but none of them would really give that much. Out of everyone in his class, he was probably worth the least amount of money. Why did Cordelia kidnap him?

There must be something else, some other part of her plan. The way her eyes looked him over, she was two steps ahead of him. And by the time he caught up to her she would be another five steps ahead.

He settled back into his bed. If he was going to be two steps behind, what’s the point of worrying? Besides, she had said that nothing was going to happen, so he might as well sleep when he could. He closed his eyes and let the sound of the waves against the ship lull him to sleep while the thought about those eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I which Gilbert learns what his purpose is on the ship, and begins to connect with it's mysterious captain.

“Wake up,” a voice cut through his dream. He awoke to find the very girl who was the central character in the dream she had just pulled him out of.

“Umm… Good morning?” he didn’t know what else to say as he propped himself up onto his elbows. He noticed that the same beefy man stood in the doorway, staring down at him.

“Good morning,” the Pirate queen responded. He looked over to her and she was packing a bag full of bandages.

“That’s an uncommonly common greeting for pirate queen,” Gilbert noticed.

“Pirate I may be, rude I am not,” she responded. “Get up,” she instructed. He did so immediately. “Come,” she took the bag and left the room. He grabbed his clothes and quickly put them on as he lastly followed her. She led him out to a small infirmary, then into a more open space with bunk beds on either side. Gilbert also noticed that there were three cannons on either side, dispersed throughout the length of the ship. There were people milling about the cabin. At the far end, there was a big pot of something cooking. “Oatmeal,” she said. “Grab a bowl, eat it, then join me above deck. Make sure that happens,” she said to his guard.

Gilbert smiled as Cordelia make her way up the ladder to the top deck. Then Jerry roughly grabbed him by his arm and pulled him over to the far side of the room. He had a perpetual scowl on his face, but Gilbert notice it soften as they approached the cook, who was serving another crew member with a smile. He even tried to straighten his vest a little bit and moved his arm from Gilbert’s arm to his back. When they approached the cook Gilbert could see that she had beautiful black hair, shinning in the morning light, and a kind smile. Gilbert could see why his guard was smitten with her. Clearly, he couldn’t get the most wonderful girl on the ship, the captain, so the cook was a close second.

“ _Bonne matin_ ,” he said to her as she scooped him some oatmeal.

“ _Et a vous_ ,” she returned. “ _C’est le nouveaux docteur?_ ” She motioned to Gilbert, who didn’t know much French, but knew doctor.

“ _Oui. Merci_ ,” he said, accepting the food.

“ _Merci_ ,” Gilbert repeated, when he accepted his share.

“Your welcome,” she said, in perfect English.

“You can speak English?” he asked.

“I can speak 6 languages,” she responded. “I’m the on-board linguist as well as cook.”

“Gilbert,” he said, extending his hand.

“Artemis,” she said, shaking it. “And just to warn you, everyone will be calling you Doc here.”

“Uhh, thanks for the warning,” he said, as his guard yanked him back to the center of the room where people had set up a small group of barrels and overturned boxes in a circle and were sitting on them, eating their breakfast.

“Doc coming through,” his guard announced. They all acknowledged this, and moved to accommodate the two of them in the circle.

Looking around, Gilbert was surprised to see that there were actually a fair balance of women and men. He also noticed that there was sort of makeshift curtains set up around the bunk beds, giving the crew members some privacy when sleeping. Now, someone was going around and taking them all down. Gilbert turned his attention to the people sitting around him.

“I’m Gilbert by the way,” he said to the girl sitting next to him.

“You’re Doc,” she said, “and I’m Emerald.”

“That can’t be your real name,” he said.

“Oh, no one uses their real name here,” she said. “We all get our pirate names given to us by Captain Cordelia.”

“And mine is Doc?”

“Or whoever else is in your position,” she said.

“Position?” he asked.

Clearly, she has misspoken. “I’m… going to go eat over there.” She quickly ran away, bowl in hand.

He turned to his guard on his other side. “You guys know I’m just a med student, not an actual doctor, right?”

“Don’t matter,” his guard said. “Eat your oatmeal.”

“Well, what’s your nick name?” Gilbert asked.

“J. Now eat.”

“J? That’s it?”

“ _Oui_. Now, _mange_.”

“Not very talkative, are you?”

“Not when I’m supposed to be eating.”

They finished the rest of their meal in silence, and when they were done Jerry dragged him back over to the cook to return the bowls.

“It was delicious,” Gilbert said.

“Thanks, Doc,” Artemis returned.

“Gilbert,” he corrected.

“Doc,” she corrected.

He smiled, and J pulled him back up meet with Captain Cordelia. The light hit him like a brick and his hand went up to block his eyes. Once they adjusted, he saw Captain Cordelia was up on top of that little platform thing that ships have, bossing around a few crew members, getting them hoisting the sails, preparing to move. He looks out, expecting to see a strange new sight, which he does but also sees the familiar red sand. “Where are we going?” he shouted up to his captivating captain.

She smiled at him from on her perch, leaning against the railing. He noticed she had on the same pants, shirt and sash on, with the knife still hanging at her hip, but she also had a green vest on today. She had the same hat, and her hair was hanging loose. “Summerside,” she said. “Now come one, we have a big day ahead.”

“A big day of what?” Gilbert asked.

“Check the bag,” she pointed to the same black bag she was packing earlier.

He went over and opened it up. “It’s filled with medical supplies.” She smiled down at him, a secret hanging on those lips. “Why are they filled with medical supplies?”

“Guess you will have to wait and see,” she smiled. He took a seat on a bench in the shade and watched as the crew came up from breakfast and got to work. They brought the boat past the city and came up to the shore. When they were close enough, the dropped the anchor. Gilbert had his hands tied by J, then he, Cordelia, J and another boy Gilbert didn’t know boarded one of the little boats on the side of the ship and headed to Summerside, with the medical bag and a couple backpacks at their feet.

They docked on the beach, away from the main port. Cordelia and the other man, whom everyone was calling Moody (must be another nickname), were carrying the backpacks and J grabbed the bag of medical supplies. He then tried to grab Gilbert, but the captain interfered. “I got Doc this time,” she said. She pulled her knife from her sash, and pressed it into his back. “Now walk,” she said and he did, side by side with her.

Gilbert could sense that send a ripple in her team. Up until now they were able to communicate with little more than a nod, they were so in sync. This, however, was something entirely new. Still, Moddy and J didn’t object much. They fell into line behind them.

Gilbert looked over. He was once again struck by her beauty. “So, how did you get into pirating?” She looked over to him with suspicion. “Just trying to make conversation,” he apologised.

She sighed. “I didn’t exactly choose it,” she said. “It choose me.”

“What do you mean by that?” Gilbert asked.

She rolled her eyes. “No more of these questions.”

“Ok, how about I ask you where we are going?”

“I already said, Summerside.”

“And what are we going to do when we get there?”

“Oh, you’ll see soon enough.”

“Right.” They fell back into a silence. “So… Any siblings?”

Cordelia laughed. “Why would you ask that?”

“I don’t know,” Gilbert confessed. “There isn’t exactly a conversation guide for how to make conversation with your captor while being brought to a mystery location with no idea what’s waiting for you there.”

Cordelia smiled at him. “Well, I can’t answer that question, but if you want to answer it you can.”

“No siblings for me,” Gilbert said. “My mom died in childbirth, giving birth to me, her first child. My dad actually also died, when I was 16. That’s what got me interested in being a doctor. People are dying for no reason. I think we can fight this and I want to work to make it so.”

“That’s a nice sentiment,” Cordelia said. “Sorry about your parents. I lost mine to, when I was really young.”

“You’re an orphan too?” Gilbert looked at her with some new understanding.

Cordelia looked back, but didn’t like what she was feeling. She pushed her dagger into his back. “Keep moving, Doc.”

They walked along the beach till Gilbert can see the Summerside pier. But instead of going forward, Cordelia pulled him over to a small path that went up the dune and through the forest. Here, they had to walk single file, so Cordelia lead up ahead, with Moody right behind her, followed by Gilbert and then J. J didn’t have a knife to his back, but that made Gilbert even more scared because he knew that J didn’t need any. Soon enough, they came across a cabin. It wasn’t exactly in the middle of nowhere, he could see town, but it was secluded.

“Moody?” Cordelia asked, communicating her instructions with only a nod.

“On it,” he nodded back, running out the door and into town. The rest of the party went inside.

“Jerry,” Cordelia nodded, then indicated a chair in the corner of the cabin. He brought Gilbert over to it, then took some rope out of his bag and tied him to the chair. He was able to observe his surroundings. It was a one room wood cabin. There was a small stove on one side, as well as a bed and a table with chairs, one of which he was now tied to. There were windows too, and Gilbert could see some lovely lace details on the bottom of the drapes. Someone had, at one point, cared for this place.

“Family home?” Gilbert asked.

“This house is owned by a lovely older woman in Charlottetown,” Cordelia informed him, opening the windows and cleaning out the cobwebs.

“Does she know you are using it?” he asked.

“Would you believe me if I said she did?” Cordelia responded. She hung her hat on the coatrack by the door, then turned to J. “You got him?”

“ _Oui_ ,” he responded.

“Thanks,” she said, then grabbed the bucket that waited by the furnace and left the cabin, leaving Gilbert alone with J.

He sat down, just opposite Gilbert. “I don’t like you,” he said.

“Well, I’m sorry if I did anything,” Gilbert tried to say.

“You didn’t do anything, I just don’t like you.”

“Oh,” Gilbert was confused. “Why?”

“Because,” J said, leaning forward menacingly, “I don’t like to see her get hurt. And you? You could hurt her. So I don’t like you.”

Gilbert swallowed hard, but he didn’t know what to say. He could tell that J’s threats were really, but also knew that he wouldn’t hurt Cordelia. He believed in treating everyone with respect unless they hurt you first and she hadn’t really hurt him, so he would never hurt her. I mean, technically speaking she did kidnap him but other than a small goose egg on the back of his head and a couple rope burns around his wrists he was fine. And it was clear that she needed him for something, so she wouldn’t hurt him. “I understand,” he finally said.

J nodded, as Cordelia came in with the empty bucket now filled with water. She set up a fire in the oven and started to boil the water. Gilbert didn’t know what exactly was happening, but everyone was busy setting things up. Cordelia was working with the oven, and J started setting out all the medical devices on the table.

Soon, Moody came back with some new people. Gilbert noticed that a few of them were coughing or had bandages on. There were also a lot more children or elderly people than he would expect, though to be fair he didn’t know what to expect. They were all milling about outside of the cabin, and Moody was bringing out chairs for the elderly to sit on if they needed it.

“Captain! Captain! Captain!” Three little kids rushed inside the cabin, ran up to Cordelia and started hugging her. They were so young, they only came up to her waist, but Gilbert could see Cordelia smile down at them.

“How have you guys been?” she asked, while smoothly taking the knife from her sash and handing it to J so it wouldn’t hurt the little kids. She then picked up the smallest of the three kids and put her on her hip.

“I lost a tooth,” the youngest child said, proudly smiling to display her missing canine.

“That’s so cool!” Cordelia said, her enthusiasm making the child beam with pride.

“I caught my first fish yesterday!” another child beamed.

“That’s really neat, I really want to hear the story. I’ll be right with you, just give me one second.” She turned back to J, Moody and Gilbert. “J, untie Doc so he can start helping these people. Moody, go get everyone else.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Moody said, sprinting out the door.

J went over and untired Gilbert’s hands, and brought him over to the bed, where Cordelia had instructed the eldest of the three young children to sit up.

“Now, Doc,” Cordelia started.

“My name’s actually Gilbert,” he tried to correct.

“Doc,” she corrected back, “I wasn’t you to take a look at young John here. Make sure everything is fine, that he doesn’t have anything wrong with him.”

Gilbert did a simple physical on John, who seemed to be about 7, as John talked with Cordelia about the fish that he caught. “Everything seems fine,” he said, when he was done.

“And now, Mary,” Cordelia said, as the middle child went up onto the bed. She seemed about 6 or so, and talked with Cordelia about the new hair ribbon that the boy next door got for him.

“Did he now?” Cordelia asked, a romantic smile on her lips. “Do you think that he might like you?”

“Eww, no,” Mary said firmly. “Boys are gross.”

Cordelia laughed at that and Gilbert couldn’t help chuckle too. “She’s fine as well,” he told her.

“And finally, baby Jane,” Cordelia took the young child from off her hip and put her back on the bed.

“Hey!” the young child objected. “I’m not a baby, I’m four.”

“My bad,” Cordelia apologized, with a small smile.

“No, you’re not bad,” Jane said, definitively.

Cordelia smiled, then turned to Gilbert. “Well, Doc, get doctoring.”

Gilbert approached the little girl and smiled, trying to comfort her. “Hey there, my name is Gilbert, I’ll be looking after you today.”

“Did you hear, I lost my first tooth,” Emma smiled, proudly showing off her missing pearly white.

“That’s really good, it means you’re growing up,” Gilbert said.

“Yay! I’m a grown up now!” She proudly exclaimed.

“Yeah! And no one calls a girl who has already started to lose teeth a baby!” Gilbert encouraged her. She smiled brightly, and Gilbert finished his exam quickly, and leaned over to Cordelia. “Your daughter is really nice,” he said.

“Oh, she’s not mine,” Cordelia said.

“Oh. Are they?” Gilbert gestured to the other kids.

“No, them neither,” she said.

“Oh.” Gilbert was a bit confused, but wanted to continue with these questions. “I suppose you would want to keep your kids on the ship, keep them safe.”

“No kids at all,” she said.

“Husband then?”

“Nope, neither.” Cordelia was looking forward, trying to suppress a smile.

“Boyfriend?” Gilbert didn’t know what inside him was pushing him to say that, but for some reason he had to.

That was what pushed Cordelia too far. She liked this line of questioning, but knew it would never go anywhere. She turned to look him in the eyes. “You have work to do,” she reminded him.

“You still haven’t told me what exactly I’m doing,” Gilbert said.

Cordelia pulled him over to the doorway, and they looked out to the small crowd of people that have been gathering outside the door. “See them?”

“Yeah.”

“Everyone out there need medical assistance. They are either old, young, or pregnant, but all of them are too poor to afford to go to Charlottetown for someone to look after them. So, we brought someone to look after them here, you.” She looked at him. “You will see every one of those patients. You will help them out however you can, diagnosing their illnesses and treating their wounds.”

Gilbert looked out. There were a lot of people out there. But clearly everyone needed his help. He rolled up his sleeves. “Let’s get to work.”

Cordelia and J helped an elderly woman into the cabin, and Gilbert began examining her. As the day went by, he examined many people and noticed a few trends. First, there were the people who had actual wounds. They could be easily bandaged up, and he asked Cordelia if he could give them extra bandages for when they are gone. Secondly, there were people who had a cough or a sneeze that they wanted checked out. They were mostly ok, but there wasn’t much Gilbert could give them other than recommendations to drink lots of tea and to stay inside so they don’t spread it. Then there were the pregnant women, who needed to be checked up on. He gave them certain foods that they should be eating more of and telling them to not eat other ones. He also checked up to make sure their babies still had a healthy heartbeat and were in the correct positions. He found one baby that was breach, but there wasn’t much he could do since it was supposed to shift on its own anyway. But he called in the young woman’s sister who was going to be there at the birth and told her what places to push and massage if it was still breach come delivery date.

Then there was the last group. These were kids who weren’t getting a nearly balanced enough diet, starting to get rickets and other nutritional diseases like that. The only thing he could prescribe was a better diet, but judging by what Cordelia and everyone else was saying there wasn’t much chance of that. These were kids from families who couldn’t afford it. No one chooses to be sick, but there’s something just wrong about the cure to a sickness being food. Food should be a basic human right, not a luxury afforded to only some.

Cordelia gave Gilbert some of the boiling water for cleaning wounds and other medical purposes but used the rest of it for herself. She pulled a teapot out of the cupboards, as well a pot of honey and the tea leaves. She loaded a tray with cups and mugs of various shapes, sizes, and levels of broken, filled them, then went down the line, giving them to anyone who needed it. It was early spring, so it wasn’t exactly needed, but it warmed everyone’s spirits. Around noon, Moody started handing lunch out, some sandwiches that Artemis had given them before they left. Gilbert ate his on the job, looking after a little 4-month-old child who kept crying and resisted the examination.

“Umm, Cordelia?” he called over his shoulder, setting his sandwich down. “Can you give me a hand?”

“That’s Captain to you,” she said, but set down her own sandwich and came over. “How are we feeling today?” she asked the little baby.

“He probably misses his mom,” Gilbert said. “She’s over helping with the tea.” A few of the mother had decided to take it upon themselves to lend a hand, if only for a few minutes. “I only need him to calm down for a second to check his heartbeat.”

Cordelia looked down at the baby, as idea starting in her head. She went over and got one of the tongue depressors Gilbert had been using. She dipped it in a little bit of honey and offered it to the screaming child. He took it in his hands and started sucking, quieting long enough to give Gilbert an opportunity to finish his examination.

When he was done, the mother came in again and took he child back with many thank yous to Gilbert, Cordelia, and her whole team. Moody went to let in the next people, but Cordelia told him not to.

“Let’s finish eating before we see anyone else,” she said. Moddy nodded and sat down by the stove to finish his. J sat by the table, but Gilbert decided to eat his on the bed/exam table. He need the softness of the mattress. Strangely enough, Cordelia came to sit by him and not with J like he thought she would. She nodded as she took a seat on his right.

He nodded back, and took a bite of his sandwich, desperately trying to think of things to say. “You’re really good with kids,” he said.

“I had a hard life, had to grow up fast,” she explained. “So, when I’m with kids I just think what would I want me to do if I were them, speaking to me as an adult.”

“Are all pirates this nice to children and the elderly?” Gilbert asked, taking another bite of his lunch.

“There is a sort of unspoken rule that you do not mess with kids, and that while you can treat everyone in the pirating business however you want, you treat everyone who’s innocent with a certain amount of decency.”

“Am I… innocent?” Gilbert asked.

“Yes,” Cordelia replied.

Gilbert nodded. “So, you aren’t going to hurt me, or anything?”

“No,” Cordelia said. “At least, as long as you don’t hurt anyone else or do anything bad.” Gilbert smiled, and Cordelia looked him over as he continued to eat his sandwich. “So, how’s it going?” Cordelia asked, gesturing to the crowd waiting outside.

“There are a lot of people,” Gilbert started, “so it’s a lot of pressure. But I feel like I’m actually doing something. Everyone talks about what it’s going to be like discover a cure to something or find a new surgical technique, but that shouldn’t be the end goal. New techniques are great, but you need people on the ground, implementing them. That is what being a doctor is supposed to be about. It’s not about getting your name in the big journals, it’s about helping people, helping everyone. I mean, that’s why we became doctors in the first place, right? Because we wanted to help people.”

“We?” Cordelia asked.

“I mean, you might not be a doctor, but you want to help people, right?”

Cordelia thought about it, looking out at the assembling crowd. “I suppose that’s right,” she pondered, taking one last bite of her sandwich. “Well, let’s do it.” She got out of the bed and helped Gilbert out as well. “J, bring in the next patients.”

Gilbert took his place again, and Cordelia went to fetch more water for tea. Gilbert watched her go, seeing how the sunlight streamed through the strands of her hair when she left the cabin.

“Eyes on your work,” J said, yanking Gilbert out of his fantasy.

They kept working until into the evening. Gilbert noticed that everyone sort of timed it well, so that no one had to wait more than 30 minutes but the cabin was never empty. He also noticed that the more sever patients came earlier in the day so that by the afternoon the patients were fairly easy, and he had more time to talk with Cordelia while seeing them. He liked spending time with her. She was mysterious, but he also felt like he knew her. Like, she would never tell him who her parents were or where she was born or how exactly she got into pirating, but they had an hour long conversation about the meaning of life and compared their favourite books. She was surprisingly well read for a pirate queen. Her taste veered more towards romance novels than Gilbert’s, but they did find some overlap. When Gilbert tried bringing up Frankenstein, though, Cordelia quickly silenced him.

“We have a copy of that floating around the ship,” she explained, “that we all read individually then discuss as a group and not everyone’s read it yet.” She indicated behind her to Moody.

“Really?” Gilbert was a bit surprised. “Like a book club?”

“Exactly,” Cordelia said.

“Is that… common on pirate ships?”

“Well, you need to have something to do, don’t you? How about Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens?”

They talked literature long into the afternoon. Eventually, everyone was seen to and it was time to go. J and Moody packed their bags back up as Gilbert packed his own as Cordelia went around, cleaning everything up. Then J approached Gilbert with a rope in hand and tied his hands together for the return trip. They all left the cabin together, and Cordelia shut the door behind them. “Till next year,” she promised the small cabin. “Let’s go,” she instructed her compatriots, then lead them back through the woods and out onto the beach. They followed the same path back the same little boat, then boarded it and went back to the ship. Gilbert could now see the name on its side.

“Matthew,” he said.

“What,” Cordelia suddenly turned to face him, a strange mixture of emotions across her face.

“The name on the boat,” Gilbert pointed out.

“Oh,” she said, her face falling. She turned back to the front. Gilbert could sense the tension in the air, not only from Cordelia but from Moody and J too, but had no idea how he had caused it. It was just the name of the boat, right?

The crew up on top sent down some hooks and as soon as Moody and J set them up, they were able to be pulled out of the water. When they got on board, Cordelia started shouting instructions at her crew. “Hoist those sails, c’mon. We only have a few hours of daylight left, let’s use them as best we can. J, get him free.”

She ran up to the little part of the boat that’s raised, the part above the captain’s room, as J untied Gilbert’s hands. From there, she commanded the steering wheel, Gilbert was pretty sure it was called the helm, and her crew. J was on the deck, commanding them from there and doing whatever Cordelia needed him to. The two of them were so in sync, Gilbert would have believed them brother and sister if they hadn’t looked so different. They for sure knew each other before getting on the ship.

Gilbert looked back to the bench he stayed on that morning, which seemed like forever ago, with everything that’s happened. Then he looked back up to Cordelia, where she commanded the vessel. He made his way up the weird stair-ladder thing, the thing that’s steeper than stairs but still made of wood and not rope so it’s a cross between a stair and a ladder, in order to meet her. He observed her, her beautiful hair dancing on the wind as her ship started to move forward. He listened, and even if her voice was loud her tone wasn’t. It was firm and commanding, but not cruel. She respected her crew, and just wanted them to do what she asked.

Gilbert took his place, standing by her behind her and to her right, close enough that someone would call them together but not so close as to crowd her. Eventually, they started moving at full speed and it needed less directions, so Cordelia stopped giving them and settled into her place, keeping the boat steady and her eye on the horizon. Gilbert stepped forward, so they were side by side.

Cordelia looked him over out of the corner of her eye, then turned her eyes back to the horizon. “What do you want, Doc?”

“Gilbert,” he tried to correct her, but knew it wouldn’t be of any use.

“Doc,” she said back. “What do you want?”

“Well,” Gilbert tried his best to come up with an excuse, “I thought I might want to learn more about the parts of the ship since I’m going to be staying on one.”

“If you insist,” she said. “You see that side?” She pointed to the left.

“Left,” he said.

“Port,” she corrected him. “And there?”

“Right,” he said.

“Starboard. Up at the front is called the bow and the back is called the afterward. The bottom is the keel.”

Gilbert nodded. “What’s that thing called?” He pointed to that bit that stuck out in front.

“The bowspirit,” she said. “Behind that, there is the forecastle, with the foremast. Then there’s the main deck, with the mainmast and cockboats on either side. Up here, we are on the quarter deck, with the mizzenmast, above the captain’s quarters.”

“Your quarters,” Gilbert remembered.

“Yes, and you live in the doctor’s quarters, just outside the infirmary. The infirmary is on the bow side of the lower deck, which has the guns and also the crew’s sleeping quarters. Below that is the hold, where we keep all the supplies. Food, water, any cargo we are shipping, stuff like that.”

Gilbert nodded. “Seems pretty standard.”

“Yeah, and how would you know?” Cordelia joked.

“Oh, haven’t you heard? This is the third time I’ve been kidnapped my pirates,” Gilbert joked back.

“Well, you must be old hat at this whole thing,” she smiled at him.

They continued to smile at each other, getting kind of lost in each other’s eyes. Gilbert noticed once again just how piercing her eyes were, but he didn’t shy away from them. He didn’t mind being seen like that, so long as she was the one doing the seeing. Cordelia, meanwhile, looked into his eyes and realized that she liked it. She looked in them and saw something that she hadn’t seen for a while, not since the night she first stepped foot on this ship. Not since the night she left.

“Umm… ‘ello?” J called from below.

They were pulled out of their moment, and both looked below to where J was staring up at them. “Yes?” Cordelia called down.

“Artemis wants to know when she should get dinner ready,” he called up.

“Tell her to have it ready for when we arrive, in two hours or two and a half.”

“ _Daccord_ ,” he said, running back down to the lower deck.

Cordelia turned back to Gilbert. Doc, she reminded herself. He’s not going to stay forever, so don’t go on acting like he is. Never name a street dog, wasn’t that the saying? He is Doc, nothing more.

“So,” he said, stepping forward, “this is my third time with being kidnapped, but how many times have you done this?”

“That is none of your business,” Cordelia said sharply. “You need to go down below and help Artemis get dinner ready. We brought you on to work, not run your mouth.”

Gilbert swallowed and took a step back. He looked at her with longing, but said nothing. Instead, he just walked away.


End file.
